Founding Engineering Lead

Mona; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Mona is seeking a Founding Engineering Lead to own the technical foundation and shape architecture and product execution. You will work directly with the co-founders, guiding the engineering strategy while shipping core capabilities.

You will lead an engineering team, build AI-enabled features, and establish a high bar for technical judgment, fast execution, and clear ownership. Hybrid role, SF Bay Area or Atlanta preferred.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of software engineering with a track record of architecting and shipping complex 0→1 products and production systems.
• Deep full-stack and backend fundamentals across applications, infrastructure, data, and security.
• Experience building AI agents and AI/ML products in production, including orchestration and data systems.
• Founder's mindset with high ownership and resourcefulness; strong product intuition.

Responsibilities

• Ship Mona’s core products for capital matching, automation, and financial coaching.
• Own problems end-to-end from user need to architecture, implementation, deployment, and production iteration.
• Set technical direction across product architecture, AI systems, data infrastructure, and integrations.
• Build security and reliability foundations for a trusted financial platform.
• Recruit and mentor engineers, establishing AI-native development practices and high technical standards.
• Collaborate with founders to translate customer needs into simple, effective products.

Skills

5+ years software engineering

Full-stack development

AI/ML product experience

Product sense

Bias toward action

Leadership / mentoring

Founder mindset

Customer focus

Job description

About Mona:

Mona is building the AI platform that helps small businesses access capital and financial coaching across the U.S. Mona’s recent round was led by Sheryl Sandberg's venture fund SBVP, with participation from Alumni Ventures, Wisdom Ventures, and angels including former Google CEO Eric Schmidt. Mona is also backed by the Mastercard Strive USA Innovation Fund.

Named to Fast Company’s 2026 World Changing Ideas List, Mona has supported thousands of small businesses across America and helped entrepreneurs secure millions of dollars in affordable capital - and we’re growing quickly. Founded at Stanford, our team brings together leading experience from Gusto, Microsoft, Headspace, the White House, and McKinsey.

About the Role:

This is a rare opportunity to build a category-defining, mission-driven company at an early stage - with world-class backers, strong early traction, and real ownership of the technical direction, engineering team, and product execution.

We are looking for an exceptional Founding Engineering Lead to own the technical foundation for Mona’s next stage of growth, with the opportunity to grow into Mona’s CTO. You will lead technical strategy, architecture, and engineering execution while remaining deeply hands-on in the product, and you’ll work directly with the co-founders on product and company strategy.

The ideal candidate is an entrepreneurial senior engineer who has built production AI/LLM systems including agentic workflows, led teams or major technical initiatives, and shipped 0->1 products in fast-moving startup environments. You are comfortable operating with incomplete information, exercising strong judgment, and moving quickly from problem to production. You will help shape how engineering grows at Mona by setting a high technical bar, recruiting and mentoring engineers, and building a culture of fast execution and clear ownership. We are looking for someone equally comfortable building, leading, and owning outcomes.

We expect the role to be hybrid, with a preference for candidates in the San Francisco Bay Area or Atlanta - though we’re open to exceptional candidates elsewhere.

Highly competitive base salary and equity, tailored to experience level.

What You’ll Own:

• Ship Mona’s core products across capital matching, application automation, and financial coaching.
• Own problems end-to-end - from understanding the user need and shaping the solution to architecture, implementation, deployment, and iteration in production.
• Set the technical direction for Mona across product architecture, AI systems, data infrastructure, and financial integrations - making pragmatic decisions that balance speed today with scale tomorrow.
• Build the security and reliability foundation for a trusted financial platform.
• Help build and lead Mona’s engineering team - recruiting and mentoring engineers, establishing AI-native development practices, and setting a high bar for technical judgment, fast execution, and clear ownership.
• Stay close to the customer - work directly with small business owners, financial institutions, and the co-founders to turn complex financial workflows into simple, effective products.

What We’re Looking For:

• 5+ years of software engineering experience, with a track record of architecting and shipping complex 0->1 products and production systems end-to-end.
• Deep full-stack and backend fundamentals, with sound judgment across applications, infrastructure, data, and security.
• Experience building AI agents and other AI/ML products in production, including orchestration, evaluation, reliability, and data systems.
• Strong product sense - you can take an ambiguous customer or business problem, make the right tradeoffs, and turn it into something users love.
• A bias toward action: you move quickly, make pragmatic decisions, and know when to optimize for speed versus scale.
• A track record of leading major technical initiatives and raising the bar for the engineers around you, with or without a formal management title.
• A founder mindset: high ownership, resourcefulness, comfort with uncertainty, and a willingness to do whatever it takes to get to the right outcome.
• A genuine connection to Mona’s mission and the small-business owners we serve.
• Nice to have: Experience in fintech, lending, banking, accounting, payments, or other financial products; Previous early-stage startup experience as a founder or early engineer; Experience recruiting, mentoring, or leading engineers.